Hey everyone! I am extremely surprised that this story has followers, thank you! I'll try my best to improve on my writing. So I had a personal deadline for updating once a week but seeing as I am working on a collab novel right now I am not so sure how this'll pan out. *whisper* (plus i'm trying to get my kouhai to notice me). I have a whole week to myself coming up though so it should be easier.

So this is part one of two. It all seemed really long together so I split it up. Also there is headcannon don't shoot me if you don't like the names. Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or any of the characters they belong to their respectful owners.

Characters: Arthur Kirkland (UK), Feliciano Vargas (Italy), Tim Govert (Netherlands), Alfred Jones (America), Matthew Jones (Canada), Ludwig Beilschmidt (Germany), Antonio Fernandez (Spain), Francis Bonnefoy (France), Simon Densen (Denmark), Roderich Edelstein (Austria), Ivan Broginski (Russia), Im Yong Soo (South Korea). For some of the bullies I just picked them more for looks than personality though most were chosen based on how they behaved.

Please enjoy and please review! ^.^ Warning: Strong language.

Ch. 2 Stand Together

Part I

A pink tongue twirled around dirty lips, cleaning them of a delicious meal. The blond punk teen stared at his nerd of an Italian friend thanking him for the breakfast. "Man you can cook! I can't tell you that enough!" he gleamed in gratification.

"Ve~ glad you liked it Arthur!" Feliciano replied happily as if he had perked brown ears sitting atop of his head and a wagging tail behind. The Italian always loved having his works of art complimented. Speaking of works of art...

"Hey dude, it's Wednesday, isn't the Art Club today?" the blond Brit asked, quirking an eyebrow waiting for the answer. He rarely attended so he always relied on Feliciano to tell him the plan.

"Huh? Oh yes~! Are you planning on coming today?" the brunette asked enthusiastically. He always loved having his friend over at the Art Club. Normally, when he was there alone, all of the other kids would avoid him like he was some kind of freak, and to their eyes he probably was. He was known for sitting in the lonely corner by the window of the second floor in the art room, looking out to the parking lot and the tennis court that laid right next to it. He would spend that whole hour painting and painting, creating works of art that he never showed to anyone, not even the art teacher/Art Club supervisor, Mr. Zinger.

"Yeah I think I will." he answered as he began to give himself a reason to go, "The way my mom was acting this morning hinted that she would try to stay home to torment me a little before going out to the bar again. I don't want to get into that mess." the green eyed boy said, leaning back he put his forearms behind his head and rested his body against the bathroom wall. Feliciano simply nodded to this bit of information. He knew well of Arthur's home life, seeing plenty of black eyes, bruises, and once a nasty broken nose, and that was all he could see from what couldn't be hidden under clothing. Currently the British boy was suffering but healing from a nasty shiner on his face, but due to all of his other beatings taken action at school, most wouldn't realize it was because of what occurred to him behind the closed doors of a normally empty home. The brunette had visited on a few occasions but did not make it a habit. The house was scary as it was without the horrendous woman, that could hardly be called a mother, running a muck. He had even witnessed his blond friend get punched hard and be left for over a bar.

He hated that house.

Arthur side glanced his friend with alert eyes, now that he had food in his stomach and given enough time to properly wake up, he was showing his true form. When awake, Arthur was extremely observant and always on high alert. While Feliciano had the ability to break free and run at a speed unbelievable to any man from his tormentors, Arthur was able to detect them coming from a mile away, on most days, and was also able to tell whether or not they should worry.

Feliciano blinked out of his momentary stupor and looked back at Arthur with his heartwarming smile, "Ve~ glad you're going to come Arthur!" he continued to smile at his friend.

The blond nodded back, "Hey do you want to come over to my place so you don't have to wait for Tim to pick you up from school?" The Brit knew that while Tim was in the same grade as they were, he didn't part take in education as much as he should have. Most days he would skip and only come in for his favorite classes. Now Arthur wasn't necessarily against Tim, he just didn't like his screwing around and leaving Feliciano to defend himself when his job as a transfer student guardian was to protect him. The only reason why Tim was Feliciano's guardian was because the counselors thought it would do him good to have responsibility. Boy were they wrong. On a personal level, the Dutch boy never brought harm the either one of them so he wasn't on Arthur's kill list or anything. When he wasn't a drunk or being a complete manwhore, he was just like them, misunderstood and looking for his own way to feel needed or desired.

The Italian teen rose his crossed legs to cover his chest as he fumbled with his words not wanting to offend his only friend. "Well... That depends Arthur... Will your mom be there?" he looked down quickly hoping that he did not hurt the blond's feelings.

The punk teen looked at his friend sadly. He hated how his only friend was too scared to visit his home. Now he wasn't mad at Feliciano at all, he was mad that Feliciano was scared, mad that it was his mother who had scared his only friend away for being her bloody wretched self. Infuriated even.

Arthur's eyes saddened but answered him with the truth: "She might be there, but considering we would get there close to four she most likely would be gone by then." The blond could then see as Feliciano debated what he was going to decide.

The brunette finally looked up and smiled warmly. "Ve~ then I will go with you Arthur!" Emerald eyes glimmered back as he realized he would not have to walk home alone this time around.

The Brit was about to speak before he was interrupted by the morning bell. He cursed under his breath and the two stood up, Arthur handing the Italian his Tupperware and thanking him again for his breakfast. They walked out of the bathroom waving at each other.

"See ya at lunch!" Arthur yelled to the brunette going the opposite direction for the day.

"Ve~ see you Arthur!" he replied back happily.

The punk Brit smiled as he walked off trying to ignore what lied ahead for him the rest of the day. Though Feliciano and him had shared many classes the last two years, their Junior year was one that was determined to tear them apart, single them out, and put a magnifying glass over them or worse a 'you are here' red dot that made it easy for the bullies to locate them. Their schedule showed little time for them to meet up: Arthur and Feliciano would meet in the bathroom in the morning, meet up at their lockers (easily bribed to be put together) between classes, meet up at the bathroom for lunch, and finally they shared fifth hour gym together. Unless Arthur decided to go to Art Club, they had no other means to meet up as Feliciano took the bus home and Arthur walked.

Arthur was almost to his first class, which was psychology, with no mishaps besides a few snarly comments thrown his way by his peers. He thought that today might not be so bad, until of course it happened. He could see the classroom door but what he couldn't see was the foot that slid from the wall out into the hallway. Luckily Arthur caught himself before falling, but that bit of torment wasn't the end, a large hand that didn't belong to the same body as the foot that tripped him grabbed the back of his head lurching his body forward to force him to hit the ground.

He heard all too familiar laughs, not by the others who watched because they were too blended to pick them out, but the ones above him were his worst nightmares. He turned around sitting up and looking his tormentors dead in the eye.

"Well well Kirkland. You might want to watch where you are going~! You really are such a careless boy~!" long, blond, and curly hair was flipped in an oh so feminine fashion that Arthur had to subdue his laughter to a sarcastic chuckle that neither teen above him could hear. This piece of work went by the name of one Francis Bonnefoy, and while he surely wasn't the most built of his tormentors, he was the leader of the pack. He was the captain of the soccer team or shall he say European football. He was a transfer student like most but he had been in America since middle school, plenty of time for him to gather his posse and a few victims, the emerald eyed teen being one of them.

"Ha ha! Almost broke your face on that floor there you mangy Brit!" and that, that was Simon Densen. While being somewhat on the short side he still had quite a build, enough to be one of Arthur's most physical of bullies. The Danish kid had spiked up blond hair and a lot of energy used for his schemes. A small metal ax hung from a necklace chain.

Arthur squinted his eyes, getting up and dusting off. "Glad to see that you two are finding time to make out in the hallways before class. Careful now, the teachers might catch you and suspend you both, then what would you do?" He retorted back, Simon growled balling his fists and was about to lung for the Brit when Francis rested a hand on the fuming teen's shoulder, pointing out that a teacher was coming out of their classroom to open the door for a few students.

"Saved for now eyebrows," the French boy gave him a glare. "But we will find your hideout at lunch and when we do you will be rewarded with the answer to the statement you just made." Though to most that threat would seem empty, Arthur visibly paled. Francis and Simon were tough to handle as it was, but at lunch The Group was all together, meaning that there would be blood. If they ever figured out where Feliciano and him were hiding they would never have peace. Feliciano normally didn't get hurt quite as bad as Arthur but that was because he didn't have the same mouth as the Brit. He was known for talking back and not knowing when to shut up for his own good. Defiant and strong he spoke on his and Feliciano's behalf.

A smirk lied on the blond's face as he casually walked away from the two brutes and into his conveniently opened classroom to which the teacher smiled a greeted him. Normally Arthur rolled his eyes and grumbled about her stupidity but this morning he gave his million dollar smile and said "Good morning Miss W!" after all, she did save him from a beating. Now she wasn't a bad teacher per se, just really flamboyant and overly involved with her students' lives. She was the psychology teacher and her room was colorful and full of random objects. It was like a rainbow puked in that classroom. During the first week of school they went to the lecture hall and formed a circle on the stage passing down a feather and lantern (since it was dark), telling everyone an answer or two on some worksheet she gave them. Arthur answered none of them but many of the 'tortured souls' cried as they described how horrible (perfect) their lives were. There were tissues. Arthur hated those complaints. They weren't ever beaten, they weren't ever bullied, and they never once went hungry in a cold house with no electricity or running water.

The final bell rang as Arthur took his seat at the back of the class resting his head on his palm.

As Feliciano walked down the hallway to Algebra 3-4 he still had his happy grin sprawled across his face. He hated being alone at Art Club, really Mr. Zinger was the only one who bothered to talk to him, and quite frankly, he wished others would be more willing too. He was thankful that Arthur was going this time. Most thought that he was submissive and bizarre. It might be true what they say, that he always looked like he was in his own little world daydreaming about God knows what. Yes, he was an obsessive fanboy, and yes most of what he was painting had to do with Italy or pasta. But he was an artist wasn't he? He might not be a professional but he had the same quirks as one. Just like everyone else at the club. They had their own sets of strange personalities but it didn't turn away the Italian in any way.

When it came down to it it must have been because he was a tortured peer. It seemed that once he was picked out by The Group, he was simultaneously isolated from the rest. Unfortunately for him, The Group didn't choose too many to pick on, it was him, Arthur, and a handful of others. Those handful of others didn't talk to Arthur or himself at all, much too scared that if they did they would get beaten more.

Feliciano and Arthur were forever marked as the untouchables.

This did not damper the Italian teen. Despite the last two years and this continued third year of utter darkness and complete loneliness he still saw a lit candle at the end of the tunnel. He had Arthur, his dark, gloomy, short tempered friend, his future at his uncle's restaurant in Italy with a family that waited for him with loving arms. He had a future that the ones who brought upon his pain and misery here in America did not have. As long as he had Arthur by his side to stand with him then nothing could stand in his way.

His metaphoric tail still wagged until his imaginary ears drooped as a sense of doom washed over him. Turning around he saw a broad chest and he looked up into violet eyes that both belonged to a body that loomed over him with a menacing shadow. Brown eyes widened as he looked underneath the intimidating teen's arms that were held by broad and muscular shoulders. Feliciano could see a certain Austrian kid wearing a black dress shirt with a royal blue vest that should have been left in the eighteen hundreds, and to top it off, a black silk tie. His arms were folded across his chest, his eyebrows quirked in a judging manner. Overall his appearance looked like one of a critic who was displeased with the work his eyes had fallen and settled upon, except of course that slight smile that graced his thin red lips.

His name was Roderich Edelstein.

"Good morning Vargas," said the teen that still stood in front of him, still stood there scaring the brunette senseless. The overgrown teen above him was Ivan Broginski, a Russian transfer student who came from the depths of an endless frozen hell. He was known for his quiet and scary intimidation techniques but otherwise hardly touched any of his targets except for perhaps holding him back (he never picked on girls). The brute always wore a white scarf no matter the season, today he wore an equally white tightfit long-sleeved shirt with black pants. Ivan also took orders from the head of The Group but was hardly trusted as he always kept a soft, mischievous smile on his face.

Feliciano was confused as to why they stood there not moving an inch towards him until the Austrian spoke, "We know Vargas, no more hiding," straight white teeth sparkled conflicting with a wicked smile. The shorter brunette gulped and shook in his shoes. Roderich flicked his hand in the air motioning for Ivan to follow him.

The Russian laid a heavy paw on the little Italian's shoulder, "Nice talking to you Vargas." he smiled as he walked away; however, Feliciano did not smile. His heart lied in his stomach.

"Tsk, useless." blue eyes squinted behind thin framed glasses as the darker brunette walked past Feliciano.

What did they know? Why will they be seeing me at lunch? They never saw us at lunch. Oh no. The brunette tried to shake his fear as he made his way to his first hour.

The morning was definitely unusual for the German student. While he didn't enunciate his English words like most Germans do (unless he was really angry), he still had his accent which fascinated even the other foreign students. It was day one at his American school life and already he had girls hanging off of him. This wasn't new as this happened quite often back in Germany, reasons why he went to an all boys military school during the allusive and confusing years of puberty. The girls acted like cats in heat wherever he went, America was no exception apparently. The only problem with American girls was that most wore shorts that looked short enough to be their underwear and their breasts popped out like they were robins trying to capture a mate's attention.

He groaned as one long haired raven girl purred in his ear. This was going to be a long two years if he had to put up with this everyday. In all honesty he didn't see the appeal in women. They were loud, they were giddy, and having some dirty whore trying to feel him up in the middle of class made him nauseous.

The German teen was always self conscious about his distaste for women and figured that if his family found out they would disown him. This secret was hence forth kept to himself.

By some miracle and without his realization the bell to the next class had rung and he looked to his new friend Antonio for help as he tried to get up from his seat. Luckily Antonio smiled, walking up to Ludwig and the crowd of girls, informing them that they had to go.

Out of history class and into the hallway they went as they headed for fourth hour Forensics, the class before lunch. Antonio placed his arms behind his head and sighed, "Man! You're so lucky you've got all those chicks on you, not that I would want them because they're nasty, but at least you're getting more attention than I've ever gotten." Not that he would want them? What does he mean by that? Ludwig thought curiously.

"Oh..." Ludwig just mumbled as response. "I don't really like them that much either, they seem too... frivolous..." he said hoping he got the word correct.

"Ha ha I guess you're right." Whew he got it right.

"Dudes!" the two teens heard and they looked down the hall in front of a dark classroom door, there stood the dirty blond teen that Ludwig saw from this morning. What was his name? Oh right, it was Alfred I believe. The lively quarterback kept waving and smiling until they reached him.

"My man, ready for lunch?" Antonio high-fived Alfred and Alfred slapped the quiet German on the back.

"Dude I'm SOO hungry I could eat a cow right now!" the American yelled enthusiastically.

"Wouldn't be surprised if you did, what with your appetite." the Spaniard gave a pointed look.

"So mean Anton!" he yelled in feigned sadness, covering his heart with his hands before smiling widely. "Whatever just one more class to go! And dude, Ludwig, no need to be so stiff, you can relax around me. I don't judge. Just be yourself." he spoke genuinely.

"It's true Ludwig, Captain America over here has little opinion of everyone. Easy to get along with, hard to make mad. However, Alfred, this dude is just like this, stiff as a board and full of manners. He's good to be around, a great example really so don't go turning him into a wild boy." he said as he patted Ludwig on the chest with the back of his hand. Ludwig was still having difficulty deciphering these social interactions.

"Hey I take that as a compliment thank you very much." Alfred threw sass at his friend. "Okay broskies let's do this shit! Forensics here we go!" he shouted in a heroic tone and he glided into the class with his arms out like an airplane making swishing sounds as he went down the classroom to the very back lab station, sitting in the high metal chair that scraped across the floor.

Antonio easily followed the teen into the very dark classroom while Ludwig reluctantly entered through the door looking for the teacher to inform that he was new. He was about to give up thinking the the teacher wasn't in yet until someone ran up behind him and screamed 'boo!'.

Ludwig was unfazed as he turned around to see a short, raven haired teacher with blue eyes and large glasses. "Aw come on kid!" she whined as she lowered herself off of her tippy toes and looked up at the German student. Man she was short.

"Um.. I'm Ludwig Beilschmidt." the blond said nervously at the crazy teacher as he handed her his schedule.

She scratched her head while she looked at it then nodded, "Yup you're in the right place. Name's Ms. C," she shook his hand more formerly as if mocking his stiffness, "You can take a seat at the back lab station with those two block heads you walked in with earlier. They will be your lab partners for the rest of the year. Oh and try to have fun, any form of science is better learned when you're having a good time." All Ludwig did was nod as a response as he walked over to Antonio and Alfred.

For the rest of the hour the class remained dark as the teacher went over notes on the board and even went over their trial lab they were having on Friday that week. Ms. C started to seem like a more adequate teacher each slide she went to, she made the class learn but also made it fun. The blond German thought that he could get use to this class.

Ludwig was slightly worried that Antonio and Alfred were going to be noisy and get him in trouble but they actually kept their volume low and focused. It was quite shocking really, and because each lab station was so far apart from one another it would make it hard for any girls to come and get to know the new student. He thanked whatever higher being made that possible.

He felt that his stomach was about to rumble and worried if the impending noise would be heard until the bell finally rung signalling that it was time for lunch. Alfred shot up and yelled "Lunch time!" as he ran out. Antonio and Ludwig following behind, both chuckling lightly at the cerulean eyed teen's antics.

As they walked into the cafeteria the German then came to the realization why the cafeteria was so large. Every student shared the same lunch time as it was jam packed with teens of all four grades. Ludwig stopped to gaze at amazement of how many there were. He didn't realize that at all as the rest of the campus was nicely spread out.

He felt his arm being pulled toward the piling lunch line, "Hope you don't mind fast food dude because that's all we've got in terms of time." Antonio said as they stepped into the lunch line behind Alfred who was jumping up and down uncontrollably. "We need to hurry if you want to get anything decent. If you don't want really fatty foods from this line I suggest their chicken breast sandwich with sesame seed bun. It's the healthiest they got that doesn't come with a side of heart attack or diabetes." the brunette mumbled to him covering his words from Alfred, shielding with his hand. The blond simply nodded in response.

Ludwig took Antonio's advice and ordered the chicken sandwich, Antonio getting the same while Alfred got a huge cheeseburger, fries, and soda. Can anyone say obesity with a side of death?

They walked to a large table that had a bunch of other obnoxiously loud teens smiling and eating away. They all paused momentarily as the three of them sat down, Ludwig being in between Antonio and Alfred. "Hey dudes! Meet the new guy, he's Ludwig from Germany!" Alfred smiled greatly before digging into his greasy burger.

"Oh?" A black haired Korean cooed, "What part of Germany?" he asked curiously.

"Berlin." Ludwig answered quickly.

"East or west?" he questioned more.

"Umm the wall no longer exists..." the German said while thinking that the kid was an idiot, "But I guess the west side," he still spoke.

The Spaniard next to him cleared his throat, "Anyways Ludwig, this is Francis, he's French and the captain of the soccer team, um European football if you will." Antonio motioned to a really flamboyant looking teen with wavy blond locks.

"Oui," he said nodding towards Ludwig from across the round table, "Bonjour, I hope we can get along, non?"

"Yeah he runs this bitch." Alfred interrupted through his mouthful of food.

"Oh shut up you little piggy!" Francis retorted aggravatingly so at the American.

"Yeah whatever Frenchie," he called back teasingly and laughed as the Frenchman looked at him in disgust and anger.

Antonio rolled his eyes as he introduced the rest, "This is Simon from Denmark, Im Yong Soo who is South Korean but has lived here his entire life. That piece of work is the almighty Austrian pianist, Roderich," he flashed Ludwig an all knowing smile which made the German quite nervous as to his personality. "And this big guy," he patted a rather tall and broad teen who then became the first person to intimidate Ludwig besides his own father, " is Ivan from the snowy depths of Russia." All the called boys nodded towards the German as a welcome and he nodded back.

Ludwig didn't realize that a teen passed by them until Alfred pointed him out, "Hey Mattie! Come join us today!" the German looked and finally noticed a boy who looked much like Alfred stood there paralyzed, he had to admit he seemed more like an extremely shy version of Alfred. The boy called Mattie turned his head down and walked away with his own lunch. Ludwig gave him a questioning look, "Aww man he never eats with us. Oh Ludwig he's my little brother." He nodded in understanding and noticed as the Frenchman shot the retreating boy a glare.

This look struck a chord. Ludwig was always good at telling what kind of person that the people around him were and he got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he first met Antonio and Alfred they seemed lively and good people, but this group... He couldn't shake the feeling that they caused trouble and were and organized group of sorts with a pecking order. He'll have to careful around them.

To further his suspicion, the one named Roderich's eyes shifted towards the exit of the cafeteria, alerting the lively Francis on whatever it was he noticed. Simultaneously the rest of the group but Alfred looked (he was too engaged in his food to realize the shift of the mood), their eyes dimming a dark and fierce color, like they were lions zeroing in and looking hungrily at their prey, Antonio however looked anxiously between all of the teens and this made Ludwig somewhat nervous. When Ludwig looked all he could see were two heads leaving the cafeteria, one blond and one brunette, the significance these two had, he had no clue.

Francis and Roderich were the first to stand and soon Im, Simon, and Ivan followed suit as they slowly stalked their way towards the exit, forgetting about their trays of food.

Ludwig made a move to follow them thinking that he had to until he looked down and saw Antonio still sitting, giving him a disapproving look, "You don't want to follow them Ludwig, you don't want to get into their mess trust me."

"But what are they doing?" he questioned curiously.

"Trust me, you just don't want to get involved. They are nothing but trouble. I'm trying to get myself out of the grave I dug, I don't want you to have to do the same." Ludwig sat back down and simply nodded.

Alfred finally finished his meal and finally looked up and turned his head around trying to find the missing members of the group, "Hey where did everybody go?" he asked.

Antonio only sighed.

Crap, he was late. If he didn't get to lunch soon then they would spot him. Why the hell were the hallways more clogged than usual today? Arthur wondered as he raced down the hall to the cafeteria. When he got there he was out of breath, but instantly he caught sight of a small lock of curled brunette hair sticking out of a line but where he stood he was pretty far back. The punk teen raced to his Italian friend and his saved spot in line.

"Ve~ I'm sorry Arthur, I had difficulty getting here today for some reason." he smiled apologetically as the blond came up behind him.

The Brit huffed, "It's alright, me too." but as he said this a little red flag went up and his senses became on high alert. Feliciano did not miss this change. "Strange, isn't it? That both of us are late. That's never happened before." At this statement Feliciano noticeably grew scared.

They stood in line nonetheless for lunch, though Arthur stood behind the oblivious Feliciano as a form of protection. If The Group was going to come at them he was going to try to detect them beforehand. It might seem that the two were on high alert for no good reason, sure they might get their butts kicked but what's the big deal? No, if it was the whole group it could result in a visit to the nearest hospital.

Once at the front of the line, Feliciano ordered a nice plate of spaghetti as for Arthur, he got simple chicken tenders. They hurriedly walked to the exit of the cafeteria hoping that no teachers nor bullies notice their leaving. It was past the door frame that Arthur paused.

He looked down at Feliciano who in turn gave him questioning brown eyes, "Feliciano, which is more important to you: our hideout or your unscathed skin." he asked seriously.

"Ve~ they saw us?!" the Italian began to panic, about to run but paused realizing that if he bolted that also meant that he would be leaving Arthur behind all by himself. "Our hideout," he squeaked.

"If you run now you might make it, otherwise walk slowly so they don't know where we're going." Arthur waited for a response but did not receive a verbal answer.

And so they slowly walked the empty hallway side by side, no words were spoken between the friends. They knew that if they simply took what The Group had to offer they would be better off. Sure enough Arthur could feel their approach and soon enough both boys felt the back of the collars of their shirts being pulled. Ivan on Feliciano and Simon on Arthur.

a/n: Quick input on the teachers. While their names are fake their personalities are real. I thought it would be nice to incorporate them.

Mr. Zinger (not his real name) was a great teacher and though he will never read this I thank him for being a teacher who wanted me to continue in ceramics even though I am unable to.

For Miss C, she wasn't actually a Forensics teacher but she always wanted to have that as a job. Thanks to her for making science fun!

And Miss W is an English teacher but she never act like it. And that group thing with the lantern? She performed it in our first week of school which was actually an activity she stole from a university in a psychology class. Literally, there were tissues, tears, and hugs. Myself and the guys all stared at the girls who were nuts. One girl tried to hug me and I gave the death glare. No touchies ~(0_0)~

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed part one, please review!